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Blackhawks' Hossa to miss 'a couple weeks'

by
Dan Rosen
/ NHL.com

Marian Hossa was feeling good, playing well and looking forward to a healthy season in Chicago.

Not so fast.

Hossa will miss "a couple of weeks" with an upper-body injury suffered in the second period of Wednesday's 3-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings. It's unclear exactly how or when Hossa was hurt, but he played only three shifts during the second period and did not return for the third.

Coach Joel Quenneville handed out the bad news following Thursday's practice, but did add that Hossa's injury would not require surgery.

"I don't know if it was (from) a defining hit or anything like that," Quenneville said of Hossa's injury. "You can't really tell. It's tough to see or say when it exactly was."

Quenneville said the Blackhawks will call up a forward from AHL Rockford prior to Friday's game against Edmonton.

Hossa is second on the team with 7 goals and 11 points.

"It's never good when arguably your best player on the team goes down, especially with how well he's been playing," right wing Patrick Kane told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It seems like he was kind of injury-free for a bit. Hopefully, it's nothing too serious. When a guy is having that good of a year, you never want to see him go down."

The positive news coming out of Chicago is that defenseman Brian Campbell skated for the second straight day and appears on his way to recovery after sustaining a knee injury in the preseason. Quenneville on Wednesday hinted that a return in New York on Monday night could be a possibility, but Campbell wouldn't speculate.

"I don't know about that," Campbell said Wednesday. "Maybe get into shape here (first). I feel good in recovery, but I'm not into game shape yet. I'm feeling better every day. I'd like to get back as soon as possible, but I'm not sure when that date is yet."